A Republican representative from Missouri had just opposed embryonic stem-cell research that could cure dozens of diseases and spinal injuries by reading into the Congressional Record a short story about cloning written by his daughter.
Seated in his wheelchair at Englewood’s Craig Hospital, Lennie Adams turned away from the television set.
“I’d like to see them sit in my chair,” Adams said quietly.
In a few words, the partially paralyzed 43-year-old music teacher from Commerce City crystallized an issue that the U.S. House of Representatives debated for four hours Tuesday.
Embryonic stem-cell research is not about a short story. It’s about Adams’ clenched hands and useless legs. It’s about Kris Burns’ resolve to live independently and Josh Stapen’s hope to once again control his bodily functions.
Burns and Stapen, like Adams, are confined to wheelchairs. Burns and Stapen, like Adams, know their fates rest with science, not science fiction.
So as the House passed increased federal funding for stem-cell research Tuesday, they had little patience for guys showcasing their children’s literary skills. Nor could they see how it helped the country – or the world – to throw away embryos discarded by fertility clinics or freeze them forever, when using them for research could help end suffering.
George W. Bush’s threat to veto the stem-cell bill if it passes the Senate makes no sense to them either.
“If he were to understand what it’s like not to have bowel or bladder control or the use of his legs, he’d change,” predicted Stapen, a 31-year-old chemist struck down by a spinal inflammation known as transverse myelitis.
Bush’s anti-abortion base equates frozen embryos with human beings and embryonic stem-cell research with abortion. That runs counter to most scientific definitions. What all science can agree on, however, is that Adams, Burns and Stapen are real people.
They represent millions with hundreds of diseases, condition and injuries who could have their suffering relieved by embryonic stem-cell research.
For them, the bill passed in the House is all about life – quality of life.
Like the bill’s co-sponsors, Rep. Diana DeGette of Denver and Rep. Mike Castle of Delaware, Adams, Burns and Stapen realize that stem-cell research likely won’t cure paralysis in their lifetimes.
But like DeGette and Castle they believe in science.
Their bill passed by a vote of 238 to 194.
“A majority of the U.S. House of Representatives took a critical step to helping extend or save the lives of potentially millions of Americans,” DeGette said.
That’s not hype.
“We never thought there would be a cure for polio,” said Burns, 53.
Without scientific research, there would not have been.
That fundamental principle arose again and again Tuesday at Craig.
Burns was injured in a car wreck nine years ago. Adams, also a car-wreck victim, has spent 16 years in his wheelchair. Stapen was stricken with his condition about a year ago.
Marc McNicholl’s 17-year-old son, Jordan, injured his spine in a diving accident 10 months ago. Jordan McNicholl came from Indianapolis to Craig because of the hospital’s reputation.
If the U.S. pushes ahead with funding embryonic stem-cell research, Marc McNicholl said, his kid might one day put on pants in less than an hour.
Not doing the research “takes away an extraordinary amount of possibilities,” McNicholl explained.
In the end, possibilities are what this debate is all about.
It’s about the chance that a frozen embryo might become a person if it is implanted in a woman’s womb.
It’s about the chance that the same frozen embryo might help cure diseases and injuries if no one chooses to implant it.
That’s all folks like Lennie Adams, Kris Burns, Josh Stapen and Jordan McNicholl are asking for:
A chance.
Jim Spencer’s column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at 303-820-1771 or jspencer@denverpost.com.
